Force10 Revolutionizes 10 Gigabit Ethernet with the S2410, Delivering Leading Density and Ultra Low Switching Latency at the Industry's Lowest Port Price.

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Setting a new standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet performance, switching latency and port price, Force10 Networks(R) today introduced the S2410 data center switch. Supporting 24 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and Infiniband-like switching latency of 300 nanoseconds in a compact form factor, the Force10 S2410 establishes the following three critical benchmarks:

--Industry-leading 10 Gigabit Ethernet port density in a one rack unit platform

--Industry's lowest Ethernet switching latency

--Industry's lowest 10 Gigabit Ethernet port pricing

"In networking environments that support parallel applications, Ethernet latency has typically been too high to meet HPC requirements, creating a niche for low latency Infiniband and proprietary interconnects," said Helen Chen, a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. "Together with the RDMA Network Interface Card, 10 Gigabit Ethernet can now achieve performance and latency parity, bringing to high performance computing environments the right combination of low latency and ease of use to make it an attractive cluster interconnect alternative."

At 300 nanoseconds, the Force10 S2410 delivers the industry's lowest Ethernet switching latency and places 10 Gigabit Ethernet on par with other cluster interconnect solutions, eliminating the need to integrate Infiniband and other proprietary solutions into the network. By bringing ultra low switching latency to Ethernet, the S2410 allows IT managers to capture the computing benefits of high performance cluster architectures using a familiar and easy to manage technology, simplifying management and reducing operational costs.

"Dell is committed to driving down the cost of high performance networking while simplifying the data center," said Liam Quinn, director of comms technology strategy in the Office of the CTO at Dell. "Technology advances such as the S2410, which bring low cost, high density 10 Gigabit Ethernet to the market, constitute an important first step in advanced data center architecture."

In addition to extremely low switching latency, the Force10 S2410 is the industry's only fixed configuration switch to deliver 24 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, triple the density of competitive solutions. At $854 per port, well below the $2,900 average industry price, the S2410 enables IT managers to cost effectively deploy 10 Gigabit Ethernet in place of multiple aggregated Gigabit Ethernet links and lay a scalable foundation for future expansion.

"As the leader in high performance computing, IBM constantly strives to improve the price/performance ratio of server technology and network switches. We must keep pace for this to have maximum benefit to the user," said Ben Smith, worldwide product line architect for the IBM Cluster 1350. "We see innovations such as the Force10 S2410 as extremely positive for the industry and an important step in the continued evolution of the high performance data center."

With the growing adoption of servers that generate traffic flow speeds of greater than one Gigabit per second and the emergence of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers, network managers increasingly need higher speed connectivity to ensure zero packet loss. The combination of low per port price and high 10 Gigabit Ethernet density in the Force10 S2410 makes connecting directly to high performance servers possible for the first time.

"The Force10 S2410 is an important step forward for the industry and will significantly accelerate the adoption of 10 Gig in the data center," said Zeus Kerravala, research director at Yankee Group. "With the performance, price points and low latency of the S2410, IT managers will, for the first time, be able to cost effectively deliver 10 Gig connectivity to servers as well as build easy to manage, high performance 10 Gig-based clusters, potentially signaling the death knell for Infiniband."

Combining 24 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with switching latency of 300 nanoseconds in a fixed configuration, one rack unit platform, the Force10 S2410 is purpose built for demanding data center environments. As an expansion of the Force10 S-Series, the S2410 complements the Force10 S50 and TeraScale E-Series to deliver flexible, high performance end-to-end data center solutions that fundamentally alter the economics of owning and operating a network.

According to Dell'Oro Group, 23 million 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports will ship over the next five years, generating more than $14 billion in revenue. Additionally, Dell'Oro Group expects that ports on fixed configuration switches, such as the Force10 S2410, will comprise an increasing percentage of total 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports as small and medium sized businesses move through upgrade cycles.

Pricing and Availability

The Force10 S2410 is available with both CX4 and XFP ports and will begin shipping in April. List pricing for the XFP version of the S2410 is $22,000. The CX4 version is listed at $20,500.

For additional information on the Force10 S2410, please visit: http://www.force10networks/products/s2410.asp

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.

Force10, E-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.